June 08, 2014

To use an athletic analogy, a normal speech and a TED Talk are totally different events (like a sprint vs the decathlon). It takes a surprisingly different set of skills and type of preparation to perform well.

I've given hundreds of presentations, and don't normally stress about them. I did for this one.

In most of my talks, there is very little "set in stone" to memorize. I tend to have a main topic (or theme), and each slide serves like a module ... and I think, talk, interact, and improvise throughout the framework.

This works well for me because I tend to think in anecdotes that branch out from the main theme. That may be a great skill to have, but it's not one that helps you write a good TED Talk.

In many respects, it's much harder to write and deliver a good 10 minutes about one idea, than it is to prepare to talk about a much broader topic for one hour.

My wife, son, and me at the TEDx Plano event

The TEDx committee created a sense of formality with stringent standards and deadlines. My guess is that, during the planning and rehearsal process, they wanted uncomfortable speakers to provoke better speeches.

As a result, I prepared (and threw away) four separate talks before coming up with something that felt right and flowed properly.

Here are some bullet points that highlight lessons learned.

One of my early listeners coached me that the trick to a good TED Talk is that it is not about what you say, but rather about what they feel. In other words, for a TED Talk, evaluate the story and the particular wording choices based on the emotions they elicit in listeners.

One of the best ways to get a point across emotionally is to tell a story. And, if I couldn't remember it easily, it probably wasn't a story.

The speech committee and several early listeners strongly encouraged me to go with as few slides as possible. I started with 15 ... I got it down to six ... and I ended up with two (relying, instead, on the performance and connection rather than images and words).

They encouraged me to take almost everything about business (in general) or my business (specifically) out of the talk.

In fact, they kept encouraging me to make it simpler and more basic on almost every level. "Why did you say that?" I would answer; and they would say "Then say that."

It is a simulated conference call in which the participants seem perpetually talking at cross purposes, coming into the conversation late, and expressing frustration that they’re discussing material they’ve already covered. Lucky you, it even has distracting background sounds, like a dog barking.

The audio and images are randomized so that each conference call proceeds in a new way.

It's kind of like the Eagles' song "Hotel California" ... you can check-in any time you like, but you can never leave (at least until you close the browser window). From the sound of it, the ConferenceCall.Biz participants have been attempting to get the deliverables to management for a long time.